Has anyone else noticed some sudsy/frothy bubbles in their sheng pu?
I was making some sheng at home this weekend, and saw (not for the first time) some soapy-looking bubbles on the tea soup inside my glass teapot before I poured it. It's not soap in the pot -- I haven't washed it recently. Could it be the result of impurities, or is this to be expected, maybe the natural tea oils or something?
After pouring the tea, I rubbed my fingers on the inside of the pot, where the bubbles were, and sure enough, it did feel a little bit viscous/greasy/soapy. I could've been imagining things... but wanted to check with all y'all.
thanks,
dave

Someone I respect a lot taught me the bubbles were oils... thanks for the confirmation

I'm not sure they are oils. I have always heard that they're from tea that's very alkaline (see the post of Imen's I linked to in the other post). Her point is that the bubbles themselves aren't bad, but that other (undesirable) particles cling to the bubbles.

As I understand it, oils are alkaline. Natural soaps were made from fats and this creates alkalinity... (it is fairly recently in history that we have developed synthetic soaps; ie detergents). So, again I'd guess the alkalinity itself is from plant oils that eventually wash out over a number of steepings.

edit: Thinking about this some more, I don't know if the bubbles would "wash" dirt like soap does, hmmm... I just throw out my first brief very short rinse (just over the tops of the leaves) but cherish the rest of the bubbles in subsequent rinses.